Taking Off My Perfect Mask
by Miss-understood- Perfect
Summary: Hermione is not who she seems. It's time for her to stop her charade. Very dark. Dramione DMHG
1. Taking it off

Author's Note: Sorry I haven't updated my other story yet….so busy. I skate like more then 12 hours a week. I'm stuck on 'What Do You Mean I'm Not Hermione Bloody Granger' anyways, this is just the product of me refusing to skip ahead a grade or two and being so bored in school its not funny. This isn't a one-shot it actually will be multi-chaptered. It's kind of very dark so if you don't like, don't read.

The usual. Italics not in the speech thingies means its someone's thoughts.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the other characters or the plot, unfortunately.

Chapter 1- Taking it off.

Taking Off My Perfect Mask

_You will never know the real me_

_I'm not perfect_

_So stop calling me that_

_I hate it_

_Just like I hate most of the people at work_

_Who don't bother looking past my reputation_

_The one I've had since first year in the_

_To them I'm just 'Mrs. Goody-Goody-Know-It-All'_

_They're so naïve_

_Just like you_

_You think you know the 'real' me_

_Slightly dark and temperamental, but still innocent and kind_

_Yeah right!_

_Guess what?_

_Not even you know_

_That my heart is completely black_

_I care about very few things  
And you're __not__ one of them_

_You used to be, but not anymore_

_Know what?_

_Get over it!_

_You, along with everybody else_

_Are what pushed me to become what I am_

_Now, I have little feeling_

_I'm invincible, no one can stop me_

_They can try and change me_

_Back into the sweet, good girl that I used to be_

_It will __never__ happen_

_I am what I am_

_If you don't like it_

_Get used to it_

_Cause it's not gonna change_

_Hermione Granger-Wealsey_

_(A.k.a Hermione Malfoy, the Dark Lady)_

Hermione impatiently flicked her now tamed chestnut curls away from her exquisite face and scowled down at the small leather bound notebook. The misleading gold and crimson striped cover looked back at her darkly glaring eyes innocently.

"God I hate those colors! Everything in this dump is gold, crimson or both. Since I'm leaving this hole tonight I might as well change my notebook to some decent colors so it will catch his attention. The buffoon wouldn't notice otherwise." She said out loud to the empty room. Thanks god that Rose was sent off to Hogwarts today and Hugo is in bed safely asleep and Ron is gone on an Auror mission.

Murmuring a soft incantation, with a flick the Gryffindor stripes vanished and were replaced with by a forest green and silver diamond pattern. On a second impulse miniature black snakes began winding there way around the smooth edges of the notebook. Smirking, Hermione surveyed her work with satisfaction.

_Wait, something's missing…_She thought.

He smirk deepening, the curly brown haired witch swished her wand, adding the finishing touch. 'Hermione Malfoy' appeared in the bottom left hand corner in a fancy black script. Her real signature seemed to slither along with the miniature black snakes.

Sighing with contentment, she laid back on her plush red and gold (_EW! _She thought.) clad bed. Sinking into the memory of how this had all started, she didn't notice that a small pajama clad figure had been watching and listening from the shadows the whole time.

_**FLASHBACK**_

16 year old Hermione Granger ran, tears pouring down her cheeks, to the corridor that held the Room of Requirement.

_I need a place to hide, I need a place to hide, I need a place to hide. _She thought furiously as she paced, her sobs echoing loudly through the deserted hallway. The echoing made it sound as if she wasn't the only one whose heart was breaking that night.

On her third walk past a certain spot on the cold stone wall a polished mahogany door appeared where the stone had been seconds before. Sighing in relief, she wrenched opened the door and sped inside. Seeing what the room had transformed into, a quiet gasp escaped through her cherry colored lips.

The room was cavernous, and filled with hundreds of thousands of forgotten items stacks on tables many times longer than the four house tables that were currently in the Great Hall. She was unable to grasp the size of the whole room because the mounds of assorted things faded away into the darkness, the ancient lamps placed along the tables unable to provide sufficient lighting. Sitting down on a worn, antique looking chair she began to think about her horrendous night.

_How could he do that to me? And with that BLOND too! Ugh, why does he want to snog that anorexic! He should have known that I __loved__ him. I can't forgive him now; it would be a relief if I got to never see him again._

"Wow Granger, language AND you hate the Weasel! Who spiked your pumpkin juice? Wait, the Weasel probably just screwed something over again and you finally noticed. So what did he do Granger?"

Hermione, who had been stunned speechless by the presence of another human in what she had thought was her one safe place that night, suddenly regained her senses. To a point.

"WHAT THE?-HOW?-WHO?" she screeched as she whipped her wand around, just a small inch from his nose. Seemingly unfazed, Malfoy dodged her jelly-leg jinx expertly, and then shot a quick 'Expelliarmus!' at her. Bending down to retrieve her wand, he became seemingly deaf to her frenzied protests and questions.

"Why are you here? How did you find me? How did you disarm me so fast? How could you hear what I was thinking? Why are you even talking to me? You haven't even called me Mudblood yet!" Her untamed, brown bushy hair flew in disarray around her face as she ran towards him screaming.

At her last statement, a flicker of something that looked like surprise flashed over Malfoy's face. As quickly as it had come, his usual smirk replaced it. "For your knowledge, if you don't sit down and wait for an explanation, I'll leave you here alone in a full body bind, and snap your wand. Your idiotic boyfriends wouldn't like that would they?"

"For your _own knowledge_, you fatuous ferret, THEY ARE NOT MY BOYFRIENDS! Ron is busy snogging that-that-that…" Words failed her as she began to advance towards the white blond haired Slytherin. Under her breath she seemed to be continuing the rant that she had been thinking when she had entered the room.

Raising both wands threateningly he gestured for Hermione to sit down on an old worn out couch, which seemed to have something nasty on one cushion. Hermione sat down as far as she could from the suspicious orange spot. "Don't think I won't Granger. You won't get anymore empty threats from me trust me." As he said that he lifted his left arm up so that his sleeve fell to his elbow, revealing creamy, almost white skin unmarred except for-

"MALFOY! YOU'RE A DEATH EATHER? YOU PUREBLOODED SCUM! HOW COULD YOU!" She stared with a sickening fascination at the snake and skull symbol on his arm.

"Shh Granger, we wouldn't want to be overheard now would we? The consequences would be very extreme…for the both of us."

"Malfoy, if you think that I will not tell, then you're dead wrong. I'll personally help them carry your too pale Death Eater ass all the way to Azkaban."

"Tsk tsk Granger, language again? Do Pothead and Weasel know about this? There are a lot of things that those two don't know about you, aren't there?"

"What do you mean?" She was momentarily stunned. He couldn't know. She had done such a good job at pretending, at covering it all up. She pretended to not have a clue about what Malfoy was talking about.

"If you would calm down for a second I would explain." Malfoy drawled.

Her desire for knowledge about how he knew overcame her want to slap Malfoy senseless. Glancing around at the piles of forgotten junk she steadied her breathing. Finally turning her gaze back to the smirking boy, she nodded to inform him that she was ready. Her eyes grew larger and larger as he explained to her.

"I'll start with the easiest parts first. I found you because I was about 6 feet away from where you sat down on the old chair thing. You were just too wrapped up in yourself to notice."

"Well excuse me for-" She began.

"Granger if you don't shut up I won't finish." He threatened, his cold gray eyes glaring at her in a peculiar way.

Quieting down, she turned to him to continue.

"Good, ok. I'm talking to you because I want to obviously. Why even ask that question?" His perfect eyebrows arched mockingly. "And as for hearing what you're thinking, your not stupid unlike some people you should be able to figure it out."

"You're a Legilimens?"

"I learned from the best, if you catch my drift." Seeing her mouth open in disbelief, he continued speaking to avoid another one of Hermione's blowups. "The learning from the best thing also goes for how I was able to disarm you so fast."

"Dumbledore never taught you anything." She spat almost too venomously.

His trademark Malfoy smirk deepening he continued on. "You know what I mean so don't even make those remarks."

"Moving on Malfoy, you haven't answered my most important question. Why are you here in the first place?"

A dark shadow passed over his face as his facial features tightened momentarily. For one second he looked so dangerous that she wondered if he would hex her for asking. A few long seconds later, he finally gave her the answer that she was burning to hear, along with the fact that she had to face what was in herself.

"I'm here because I've been given a mission that I really don't want to succeed at, at least not yet. My task is to repair the Vanishing Cabinet that Montague got stuck in. There's another one in a store in Knockturn Alley called Borgin and Burkes. The thing is you're actually able to get from one to another if they are both repaired. The one in Borgin and Burkes was broken, which is why he got stuck. If I'm able to repair it, the Death Eaters will be able to get into the school, to kill Dumbledore. I wish that they were trying for Pothead instead."

Ignoring the insult to Harry, she said, "That sounds like a dream come true for you. Why don't you want the mission to succeed? Any other year I'd bet you'd be pretty ecstatic about Voldemort taking out Harry and Voldemort."

"I'm getting to it Granger! See, this is the part where you come in."

"What about me?"

"Would you stop the bloody interrupting?!" When he didn't get anything other than an impatient nod, he continued. "I didn't join the Death Eaters because I'm some simple minded idiot Voldemort worshipper. I don't want him to win this war, contrary to the popular opinion. That's where you come in."

"Then why did you join his army? What about me?" Her frenzied questions rushed out of her mouth.

"I'm getting to it! I joined so that I could take the and his good for nothing army down from the inside, instead of just openly opposing them. I know that you want Voldemort to rot in as much as I do, and for the same _reason_ I do. _We _want to have all of the power for ourselves, not to be a follower. You hate being one of Potters' sidekicks, I can tell. It's in your eyes as well as your thoughts even if you don't admit it to yourself."

"What? No-no-no! Never!" Her protests were thin as she tried to convince Draco as much as herself that it wasn't true. _ He can't know...Draco could be lying, couldn't he? Holy I just called Draco, Draco…wait I mean Malfoy, Draco! Ugh! God, why am I trying to convince myself of something I know is true? _She kept up her useless and feeble internal argument with herself for a few minutes, and then slumped even farther down into her seat.

Draco, sensing that she was finally admitting it to herself, softly spoke. Might as well tell her now…how would she react? "_Hermione, _together we could take over the Wizarding world much better than Voldemort. We would literally be unstoppable if we tried this. You don't have to join Voldemort, just do your best to defeat him with your two idiots. If he kills Dumbledore it will be much harder for us to get him down. You don't deserve to hide behind those two buffoons…you deserve me. Hermione, you're pretty much the only person in the world that I care for. I…love you, and have ever since 3rd year."

Hermione had been stunned into a tingling silence during Dracos' impassioned speech. To her own astonishment, when she had heard him professing his love to her, a warm feeling had spread slowly up from her toes all the way through her stomach. Almost as if she had gotten 135 on Snapes' hardest essay of the 7th year, except better. It confused her, why did she feel this way? Did she love him back? Unbelievably, even to herself, she opened her mouth and tenderly whispered, "I love you too, Draco".

His gray eyes widening in disbelief and a rare flash of pure happiness, he took one step towards her.

_Oh Merlin, oh Merlin, oh Merlin…_Her heart racing, she wondered vaguely if he could hear her loud and exited pulse. Closing her eyes, she leaned towards the blond haired Slytherin.

"HOLY!" Came from the direction of the entrance way of the Room of Requirement.

In one fluid motion, the two of them jumped apart, put on a grimace of loathing directed at each other, pulled their wands out and pointed at each other, looking every bit like the enemies they supposedly were. They waited for the intruder to round the corner of the stone wall and catch a glimpse of them dueling.

"That sounded like Harry…" Hermione whispered worriedly, knowing that if he had overheard or seen anything all of Dracos' plans were ruined.

When the cursing had subsided and they could hear footsteps leaving the hallway, they slowly moved together. Draco wrapped one of his arms around Hermiones' tiny frame, and clasped her two hands with his other hand. Relief swept through her as she realized that their secret was safe, at least for now.

With her head buried into the crook in Dracos' neck, Hermione tried to piece together what had just happened. Dracos' hand tracing lazy and soothing circles on the small of her back, she suddenly realized what had happened. Reluctantly raising her head off of Dracos' strong shoulder, she began to explain her idea of what had just happened.

"H-Potter knows that you're up to something in here," Seeing the rage building in his charcoal eyes, she quickly added. "But he doesn't know what you're, I mean we, are actually doing. He just probably idiotically kicked the wall because he got frustrated from waiting so long."

Suddenly understanding, his eyes returned to their normal color and he nodded his head. Another realization coming to him, he unwillingly told Hermione that her two 'best friends' were probably looking for her.

"Yeah, they probably are, I suppose I should get back to my godforsaken common room now." With that she freed herself from Draco's loving embrace and walked towards the door.

She had her hand poised over the brass doorknob and was ready to leave when her Slytherin suddenly blurted something out.

"Meet me here tomorrow night at midnight?"

The 'Gryffindor' turned slowly around. Her chocolate eyes were compassionate for nothing other than him (and maybe a tiny bit still for her school work). She whispered, "Of course."

A mischievous smirk appeared on Draco's face, and the mood was broken and replaced with a much more relaxed but still romantic one. "We'll continue what we started?"

Hermione caught his infectious mood and returned his smirk with one of her own. "If you're good, we will. If you're bad, we will. Agreed?"

"Agreed. By the way, use the password, 'I want somewhere where Hermione and Draco can be alone together'. We don't want any intruders."

"You're certainly right about that. …Draco?"

"Yeah 'Mione?"

"Earlier tonight, when I found out that Weasley," She spat the name, almost as if it was a dirty taste in her mouth. "Was going out with Brown, I used a certain useful little charm on him that sent a flock of canaries to attack every inch they could get at of him."

"You're kidding me! Awesome job, that just made my day even more perfect."

She blushed. Even after the unbelievable night she's had, praise coming from Draco was still like a dream for her. She lowered her head. "Thanks."

He stepped towards her and brought her up against her body, feeling her heart beat a steady rhythm against his Quidditch toned chest. Gently placing one hand on her tanned cheek, he gazed into her chocolate eyes. He gave his Gryffindor a tender peck on the cheek and whispered, his voice husky and lower than normal, "You really should get back now."

A look of regret quickly flashed across her face, and then it was replaced by a calm, emotionless expression. Draco thought it suited her high cheek bones, and gave her face an aristocratic look. The look made her seem as if she was already Mrs. Malfoy, the new Dark Lady. They were worthy of only each other.

Hermione broke the silence with a quick, private smile and a whispered good bye. She opened the door and cautiously peeked out, to check that no one was around. With one last glace at him, she slipped out the door and vanished from sight as the old antique door swung silently shut.

_**END FLASHBACK**_

That had been the first of many meetings.

The warmth of the memory washed over the middle aged Hermione's body, and a small smile graced her lips.

"Fortunately, I can leave the old me behind tonight, literally. My love should be along anytime to collect me from this degrading excuse for a home. My only regret is that I won't get to see my 'husbands' reaction when he finds my journal and the official divorce papers that just so happen to be inside it."A well practiced smirk appeared on her lips, as she spoke out loud to herself, enjoying hearing the words echo in the tiny room that she thought was empty of human life except for her.

Hugo lay, crouched and cramped under the low lying bed that his mother was currently lying on. How could his mom say and do all of these things? His mom that he loved and trusted, who put him into his bed at night, tucked him in and read stories to him. His mom that was always telling him that she loved him. It couldn't be the same person! His heart refused to let him believe it, but his brain knew it was true.

_Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. _He willed himself repeatedly, silently.

Hugo was amazingly scared. His mom never sweared, he thought. She was always scolding his Daddy for it around him and Rose. So why was she saying what she had called, only yesterday 'bad, inappropriate words'. And what did she mean, divorce papers? 9 years old Hugo had inherited his mothers smarts and knew what a divorce was, and that is was amazingly hard to get in the Wizarding world. His mom must have gone through a lot of trouble to get the papers without anyone finding out. But his mum _loved_ his dad! Or at least he had thought so…

"We'll need something to summon them, other than just a stupid mark that's easily traced and seen." He heard from above the bed.

_What? A mark? Is mummy involved with those bad people dad's always telling me about? _His eyes grew wide as he realized the truth. _Oh Merlin she is._

Once again he could hear his mothers' mutterings, and what he heard next shocked him to the core.

"And soon I'll have to get rid of my stupid brats. Not tonight, but soon. When they're both home at the same time to it will be easier."

It was too much for the red headed boy to handle. Before he could regain his composure, a gasp tore its way up through his throat and out his mouth and he burst into frenzied sobs.

"WHAT THE?" Hermione roared. In one smooth movement she sprang up, rolled off the bed, reached in under, and hauled Hugo out by the ankle of his too short blue pajamas. She pushed him onto the bed as he let out a strangled yelp.

"Mom…mommy…please." He whimpered.

"How much did you hear, you little prat?" She picked up her wand off of the bedside table.

"Nothing! I swear, I swear!"

"You little liar. You heard everything, didn't you?"

"NO!" His eyes shook and his voice betrayed the truth.

"_Don't _lie to me. You realized you're going to die tonight, right?" She told her son calmly.

"Why? I swear I won't tell anyone…ever! At all!" Tears poured down his pale, freckled face.

"I can't take the chance. I was going to kill you anyways, and I will truly enjoy it now."

"Mommy _please!_" His normally handsome face was contorted with fear, while Hermione's was eerily calm, too calm.

"You would crack as soon as they asked you were your _precious _mother's gone. _DON'T _lie! You little prat!"

"Mommy I love you, why don't you love me?! I really really really love you…"

"I love no one but Draco. I've never loved you or my good for nothing ex husband, ever. The way you both love Gryffindor, and have that nauseating mop of red hair that makes it look like your head is on fire. Ugh!" She glared at her son with contempt.

"MOMMY DON'T KILL ME PLEASE!"

"Shut up!"

"MOMMY PLEASE DON'T!"

"I'M GOING TO SHUT YOU UP FOR GOOD."

What happened next seemed to slow down the very essence of time itself. Hermione, her face contorted with years of pent up hatred, raised her arm, wand clutched in her hand, over her curls. Bringing her wand down with such force, she stopped when the tip of her wand was leveled with dead center on Hugo's chest. He cowered in fear, knowing what was coming.

Hermione took one last look at her only son. Then she bellowed, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

The green beam of light seemed to take ages to reach Hugo. When the curse finally reached him, he felt a tingling in his very core. Then he felt no more.

Hermione felt no remorse what so ever. As time returned to its normal velocity, she sauntered over to the tiny corpse. He truly was dead. Not one trace of life could be seen in his vacant, sky blue eyes, and his red hair hung limply over his pale forehead.

Paying no mind to the fact that the dead body had once been her living, breathing son, she bent down. Lifting her notebook off of the mahogany table which it rested on, she unceremoniously plopped it onto Hugo's unmoving chest. As the glittering notebook landed a soft _thoomph _sound echoed hollowly around the room.

_Well that turned out well. One down, one to go. Pity I couldn't get the both of them at the same time. _No more talking out loud for Hermione. She's learned her lesson.

_Crack _a loud noise sounded from the tiny living room. Brushing her curly hair away from her face, she squirmed in anticipation. Quickly, she straightened up, grabbed her tiny suitcase, and hurried out of the bedroom.

A-N: Is it okay? Review and let me know.


	2. The Reunion and The 1st Two Riddles

AN- This is probably not gonna be as long as the first chapter, or as action packed

AN- This is probably not gonna be as long as the first chapter, or as action packed. Next chapter is going to explain why Hermione went insane, if anyone wants to know why.

Chapter 2

The Reunion and the First Two Riddles

Draco sighed in exasperation. Getting out of the manor unnoticed had taken him longer than expected. The Zabini Manor was packed with wizards, and unfortunately for Draco, he always seemed to be the center of attention.

_But then, why wouldn't I be? _As the son of the right hand man to Voldemort (_I hope the two of them are rotting_), and because of his distinguishing hair color, there were very few people who didn't know who he was. Not to mention, he was good looking too.

_Why did Blaise offer up his Manor, anyways? _Although he had to give his best mate a pat on the back for that one, as it had paid off in a big way. It was the poor people who were using the Manor as a place to stay as they got enough money to build a house that Blaise and Draco had slowly brainwashed into listening to Hermione, Blaise and Draco's orders, without complaint.

Some of them were bloody annoying though. Did they really need little Colin Creevy? _Annoying, nosy little twit. _It was mainly because of him that Draco had had trouble getting out of the Manor.

_He certainly left me alone after a healthy dose of the crusiatus curse, though. _A satisfied smirk appeared on his flawless face as he remembered Creevy's agonized screams, and the way his limbs twitched in spasms as he fought to get thee breath to beg Draco to stop.

It had only been his want to see his brown haired, secret lover as soon as possible that had lowered his wand from the helpless boy. With a final, uncaring glace at Creevy, he swished his cloak and hurried out the mahogany, silver lacquered door.

_Hermione's probably wondering why I'm not there yet. Probably worrying, knowing her. _With this thought in his head, he hurriedly apparated off of the Zabini lawn, and as close to the Burrow as possible.

_Stupid war hero 'advantages'. _For their work in the war, Hermione and Ron's house had been given every protection imaginable, just in case an angry supporter of the dark side wanted revenge. In Draco's opinion, the only thing in spells did was keep out people who really needed to get in.

Falling down on his knees, he crawled over to a precise spot on the unkempt lawn.

"Conosenza é il potère" He murmured, and a second after, chuckled softly. Leave it to Hermione to make the password 'knowledge is power'. Draco was sure her redheaded buffoon had no clue what it meant.

A small hole in the ground opened up, revealing soft, moist soil. In sprawling, neat hand writing one word glowed green out of the dark brown earth.

Treachery.

A small smile graced his pale lips, and he began to lift himself away from the grass. As he stood up, an eerie green light lit Hermione's bedroom window. That light could have only come from one spell.

"What the?" As quickly as he possibly could, he ran out of the grounds of the Burrow. Stopping at the iron gate, he apparated as quickly as possible, not even noticing the unpleasant squeezing sensation that accompanied the apparition.

_Pop_

As the unpleasant sensation subsided, Draco opened his grey eyes. His view of the dumpy living room was quickly obstructed by a small tan blur with a think mass of dark brown curly hair.

With a yelp of surprise, Draco almost toppled over. In one fluid motion, Hermione dropped her bag, and hugged Draco so tightly that it felt like he was still apparating.

Gently the blond haired man pried Hermione off of him. "Hey, you. You can't kiss me if you suffocate me to death.

He tenderly lowered his lips to hers, as she wrapped her arms around his neck. As the kiss turned more passionate, Draco's tongue begged for entrance at Hermione's mouth. Surprisingly, the brunette pulled away.

"We have to get out of here, and quickly." She said with nervous eyes.

"What happened?" _Merlin, what happened? _He placed one hand on her shoulder.

"There was a…glitch on my side of things. It's all sorted out now though." She paused. "The Ministry can detect Unforgivables, so we have to leave quickly." All of this was said calmly.

"_What happened?_"

"Someone got a little nosy." Hermione said with uncaring eyes. She motioned for Draco to follow her. She led him into the bedroom.

Draco gasped.

The unmoving body of Hugo lay like a limp rag between them.

"Good job 'Ni." He let out a sigh of relief. "At least the problems been taken care of, and it will show everyone that this is serious."

"I know." She said as she pushed the body with her toe. "Lets leave now."

They gathered Hermione's bag from the living room. As they walked out of the run down house, a chill seemed to settle in the night.

"What is that?" Hermione said, shivering. She cast an uneasy glance at her surroundings.

As the cold descended upon them, Draco grew nervous. "Dementors." He spat with an air of understanding. "The godforsaken Ministry sent them here!"

"Oh god." Was her only reply.

Picking up their pace until they were sprinting, they quickly made their way towards the gate of the Burrow. Just before they reached the apparition point, a dark, cloaked shape glided in front of them.

"Oh no…" Hermione breathed. Without wasting another second, she raised her wand and bellowed, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

Intently Hermione concentrated on her happy memory. Her silver fox quickly drove the dementors back, and it turned and glided into the woods.

Just as they reached the apparition point, the curly haired witch turned back towards her old, run down house. With a flick of her wand, two pieces of parchment zoomed towards the tilted house and into Hermione's bedroom window.

Ignoring the quizzical look that Draco sent her, she stood patiently, waiting for him to join her in apparition. As he wrapped his arms around her tiny waist, she felt the familiar turning and squeezing of side along apparition. Closing her eyes, Hermione relished the feeling of Draco's muscular arms around her. In them, she was finally home.

--

"Potter…Potter…Potter WAKE UP!"

"What…" With a tired groan, he rolled out of bed and tiredly stood up. As the black haired man noticed the overly serious face of Kingsley, he grabbed his wand and fully woke up.

"I thought you said the dragon poachers weren't going to arrive until tomorrow."

Kingsley's face tightened in sadness. "No, it's not that."

Harry was now fully awake and panicked. "Tell me what happened!" He begged. _Was Ginny hurt? Ron? Hermione?_

Kingsley sighed heavily. "I was hoping that I wouldn't have to be the one to break it to you. A half an hour ago, the ministry received notice that an Unforgivable had been preformed at the burrow."

"WHAT!? Are Hermione and Hugo okay?" Harry's face turned dead white, as Kingsley bowed his head.

"The ministry scanned the house and the grounds, but there were no signs of life."

"Oh…my…god…" Seemingly lifeless himself, Harry sunk down onto the makeshift bead.

Kingsley came over and sat down next to Harry, and attempted to comfort the distraught Auror.

Stopping his hysterical tears long enough to catch his breath, Harry gasped out, "D-does Ron know?" His emerald eyes displayed only sadness.

An agonized groan escaped Kingsley's lips, and he seemed close to tears himself. "I know it's hard for you, but I wanted you to break the news to him. You know how…emotional he gets, especially about his family."

"Yeah…" Harry's voice trailed off, and he slipped back into his sobs.

For a few awkward minutes, the tall Head Auror stood off to the side of the army cot that Harry continued sobbing into his hands on. After several long minutes of his heart breaking, the tall black haired man drew in an agonized breath, and lifted his head heavily from his salty, tear stained hands.

With his eyes closed, as if he were afraid that more tears would leak out, Harry whispered, "I can't believe this…I guess…" he drew in an unsteady breath, "We'll go tell Ron now. He deserves to know, and it would be best if it came from me.

With a miserable look in his eyes, Kingsley followed the distraught Harry from the small tent.

--

The Burrow loomed in the distance, unearthly, as if it wasn't really there. Harry's heart seemed to contract in sadness as the quartet of people walked close and closer to the house.

Outwardly, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary at the tiny house. No broken windows, no signs of disturbance.

_Whoever got in there must have used a very advanced version of Alorhormora…and I will kill that evil person when I find out who it was…for Ron. _Thought Harry, his anger softening as he looked at his beast mate.

Ron's reaction had been the worst of them all. He didn't cry as Harry had, and nor did he yell, scream and throw things like Ginny had. Instead, he had just sat there, with a blank look on his face like he had been told something unimportant like it was raining out.

The same look still rested on his face as step by step they approached the Burrow. This chilling calm hurt Harry more than anything. _It's like he's in denial._

Finally they arrived at the door of the Burrow. Harry clenched his fists together, and prepared himself for what was within.

As Kingsley swung the door open with an ominous creak, the interior of the Burrow was revealed to those four grieving people. A small gasp escaped Ginny's lips as she surveyed the lack of damage in the house in front of them.

A smile lit up Ron's previously unemotional face. "The detectors must have malfunctioned! I bet you anything 'Mione and Hugo are curled up in my room. All the wards on the place must have messed the detectors up!" Happily he bounded into the room that he and Hermione shared.

Harry and Ginny glanced at each other, not willing to let themselves feel any hope. Could this nightmare night be nothing more than a mix up?

As a long, drawn out wail of agony sounded from the adjoining bedroom, Harry felt his insides turning to ice. Quickly he and Ginny sprinted into the room. At first glance, nothing wrong could be seen. But with a few more searching glances, an unimaginable horror was revealed to them.

A hysterical Ron Weasley had curled himself around the limp, unmoving body of Hugo Weasley.

The tiny corpse wasn't moving, breathing, of jumping up to tell him it was alright like he was supposed to be. It was at that moment that Harry realized that nothing was fine. Hugo was dead, and Hermione was probably too. Nothing would ever be fine again. A sickening bile rose to form a knot in his throat, and he collapsed onto the rumpled bed.

Ginny; however was seeing nothing but red. As the boys- _ahem, men, _in the room went to pieces, she started searching for any clue as to who could have done this. Whoever had killed her nephew and probably Hermione- sweet, kind Hermione- had to pay.

At first her desperate search revealed nothing, but finally two seemingly ordinary pieces of parchment presented themselves to her. Quickly, she bent down to retrieve them. Her ginger brow furrowed in confusion as she read the written lines on the parchment, and with decisive strides, walked over to her husband.

"Harry…Harry get up!" She whispered in a hoarse voice filled with sorrow and anger. "Look at this!"

With an agonized groan, Harry pulled himself into a sitting position, and took the two pieces of parchment from his wife. Without thinking, he began to read the first one aloud.

_In a war you must take part_

_I've stolen a piece of your heart_

_The trio is now down to two_

_I've taken the brains away from you_

_So if you don't want to lose anymore_

_Prepare yourselves for what's in store_

It was signed, with neat script, _DL._

Harry looked towards Ginny with confusion in his eyes. What could it mean? The note certainly said that Hermione was gone, but it didn't confirm that she was dead. _Is there some hope? _Thought Harry. Aloud, he whispered, "Here's the second one."

This time as Harry began to read; Ron's anguished sobs faded to background noise while Harry tried to decipher the eerie riddle.

_When the people start to die_

_It's with you that the blame lies_

_For it's you who made me who I am_

_Made me start this evil plan_

_You think you know me, think again_

_All you did was cause me pain_

_So I'm fighting back, I've become strong_

_I will prove it's you who's wrong_

_I who's blood is unnaturally pure_

_Who hides behind a façade, demure_

_I'm cruel, I'm ruthless, and I'm smart_

_With my lover we'll do our part_

_To make the world a better place_

_Problems that you now must face_

_DL_

The two riddles fell to the floor was Harry covered his face in his hands. "I don't get it!"

Ginny sighed, and cast a pitying glance towards her brother, who had finally gone to sleep, still clutching his dead son. Like that could bring him back to life. "I have no clue. The one who was good at solving stuff like this was…" She paused, and a single tear ran down her cheek. "Hermione."

The distraught pair lay on the bed together, absorbed in each others grieving. It was many long minutes before Ginny spoke, her voice muffled due to sadness, and because she was lying against Harry's chest. "Every time I come up with a lead I get to a dead end."

"I know Gin…I know…" He comforted her.

"I just want Hermione back." The wall that she had set up when she had heard the news had finally broke, and she dissolved into distraught sobs that racked her whole body and her very soul.

"We WILL figure it out." No matter how much he tried to convince himself, the lingering doubt was still there. Harry tried to hold it in, but that pain of losing one of his longtime best mates overwhelmed him, and he joined his wife in grieving and mourning to the friend that they had lost.

Knocked under the bed by accident due to Ron's discovery of his sons' corpse, a tiny, ordinary note book lay unnoticed under the bed, containing secrets that could determine the fate of the Wizarding and Muggle World.

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AN- What can I say? Review, review, review!


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